The field of this invention relates to the electrodepositing of one metal onto another metal, and more particularly to an apparatus to facilitate the metallic plating of a portion of a small electrical connector, thereby eliminating the need to plate the entire connector.
It is well known that electrical connectors come in all sizes. At the present time, a substantial number of electrical connectors range from a half an inch in length to two inches in length. These electrical connectors are usually constructed of cuprous or possibly a ferrous metal. In order to facilitate electrical conductivity of the connectors, these connectors are usually plated with silver and/or gold, and/or palladium. Not only do these metals have the property of excellent conducting of electricity, these metals also have excellent corrosion resistant properties and are highly resistant to the action of most chemicals. The metal which is most commonly selected from gold, silver and palladium for electrical conductors is gold. The reason for this is that gold has the best overall properties for electrical connectors. This means that electrical conductors, when plated with these metals obtain an extremely lengthy operating life.
It is well known that the cost of gold, silver and palladium is quite high. In the past, a manufacturer of electrical connectors had found it to be economically feasible to only plate the entire part. It is known that it is only necessary to actually plate in the area of the electrical connection, which may only comprise a small portion of a part. But because of the small size of the part, it is only feasible to plate the entire part. Therefore, three to four times of the plating metal is being utilized than what is necessary.
This amounts to a significant expense for a company which manufacturers hundreds of thousands of electrical connectors each year. If there was a way to make it economically feasible to plate only the portion of the small electrical connector that functions to make the electrical connection, then a substantial decrease in plating expense could be obtained without any reduction in quality of the electrical connector.